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Robert Harbron Concertina Workshop 24 Nov @ Lewes Arms


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Dear Everyone,

 

 

 

Booking for this workshop is now open. Emma Reid is running a simultaneous workshop for fiddlers and will perform with Rob in the evening at the Lewes Arms. For more information about these two, who excel as performers and teachers, see:

 

 

 

http://www.robertharbron.co.uk/

 

http://www.emmareid.se/en/solo.html

 

http://www.emmareid.se/en/robandemma.html

 

 

 

All the best,

 

 

 

Valmai Goodyear

 

 

 

 

 

Lewes Arms Workshop No 89

 

ROBERT HARBRON

 

CONCERTINA WORKSHOP

 

Saturday 24th. November 2007

 

10.45 a.m.- 4.45 p.m. Places £30

 

The Lewes Arms

 

Mount Place, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1YH UK

 

 

 

Rob is widely considered the most important concertina player of his generation. He is known for his work with Dr. Faustus, Tim van Eyken, The English Acoustic Collective, Emma Reid, & The Three Magpies (Rob, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan. He has been a popular tutor for Folkworks, Hands-On Music & a great many more.

 

The workshop will help players of all abilities develop an individual style of playing. It is primarily for English system players but Anglos & Duets are also welcome. Music will be available beforehand but the focus will be on ideas & technique using your existing repertoire, so ear players & readers should feel equally comfortable. Rob will explore some of his trademark bellows & chord techniques.

 

 

 

IN THE EVENING ROBERT HARBRON & EMMA REID

 

PERFORM AT THE LEWES ARMS FOLK CLUB

 

(£6: advance tickets from address at end of this form)

 

 

 

Provisional Timetable

 

 

 

10.45 Registration & coffee; order lunch (refreshments not included)

 

 

 

11.00 Phrasing & ornamentation

 

 

 

12.30 Lunch

 

 

 

13.30 Chords & bellows techniques; some thoughts about constructing accompaniments for tunes & songs

 

 

 

15.00 Tea/coffee break

 

 

 

15.15 Putting it all together: looking at how a combination of ideas & tricks can bring a tune to life.

 

 

 

16.45 Finish

 

 

 

N.B. Booking is recommended as numbers are limited. Maps & accommodation lists will be sent on request.

 

 

 

 

 

ROBERT HARBRON

 

CONCERTINA WORKSHOP

 

Saturday 24th. November 2007

 

BOOKING FORM

 

 

 

I would like to attend the workshop on 24th. November 2007. I enclose a cheque for £30.00 for workshop fees (refreshments not included).

 

 

 

Name:

 

 

 

Address:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Telephone:

 

 

 

E-mail address:

 

 

 

Concertina system:

 

 

 

No. of tickets for evening performance:

 

(£6 each; include SAE for these)

 

 

 

Tick for map: Accommodation list:

 

 

 

 

 

Please make cheques payable to Lewes Arms Folk Club and send with this booking form to: Valmai Goodyear, 20, St. John's Terrace,

 

LEWES, East Sussex BN7 2DL

 

Tel. (01273) 476757

 

e-mail:valmaigoodyear@aol.com

 

http://members.aol.com/lewesarmsfolk/

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  • 3 months later...

The music for Rob's all-systems concertina workshop on Saturday 24th. November arrived today and is about to be sent out. Places remain for the workshop, as do tickets for Rob's evening performance at the Lewes Arms Folk Club with Emma Reid.

 

Emma's fiddle workshop on the same day is sold out.

 

We have one ticket remaining for 'A Kipper Country Christmas' on Sunday 8th. December.

 

Tootle pip,

 

Valmai

 

Valmai Goodyear

20, St. John's Terrace, Lewes, BN7 2DL

 

01273 476757

 

Lewes Arms Folk Club, Mount Place, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1YH

http://www.lewesarmsfolkclub.org/

Residents: Bryan Creer, Dave Earl, Sandra Goddard, Valmai Goodyear, Suzanne Higgins, Steve & Diane Nevill, George Oakley, Robert O'Mahony, Derek Seed

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It's always good to know that the postal service has worked - many thanks. Yes, I'm finding most of the tunes fairly straighforward but the last one is a bit of a devil.

 

We have four places left for this workshop if anyone is thinking about coming. There is a booking form further up this thread.

 

Tootle pip,

 

Valmai

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Ah. Have a nice one Valmia.

 

Say hallo to Emma Reid. Met her in Karstad, Sweden. In the museum where I played my concertina.

Never heard her play one, but she's reid (sic) hot on the fiddle.

 

Chas

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Ah. Have a nice one Valmia.

 

Say hallo to Emma Reid. Met her in Karstad, Sweden. In the museum where I played my concertina.

Never heard her play one, but she's reid (sic) hot on the fiddle.

 

Chas

I agree, Chas:

 

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...endid=103857782

 

Regards,

Peter.

 

PS for Valmai - please say "Hi" to Rob, from me!

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I think it's safe to say the workshop was a resounding success although I came away with more new information buzzing around in my head than I can generally absorb in one sitting. Fortunately Sal is adept at recalling vast quantities of info and writing them down afterwards so I've locked her in the back room with her computer to start writing out the details.

 

The workshop covered a lot of ground; everything from warmup exercises (I kid you not!) through practice drills and scales to bellows use and techniques and included a very interesting talk on the subject of how approach an unfamiliar tune and turn the dots into a performance ready tune with your own interpretation.

 

One thing that will occupy much of my practice time in future was Rob's technique for playing tunes on the English concertina with all of the 'bounce' of an anglo, just to give a little more variety.

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Fortunately Sal is adept at recalling vast quantities of info and writing them down afterwards so I've locked her in the back room with her computer to start writing out the details.

 

The workshop covered a lot of ground; everything from warmup exercises (I kid you not!) through practice drills and scales to bellows use and techniques and included a very interesting talk on the subject of how approach an unfamiliar tune and turn the dots into a performance ready tune with your own interpretation.

 

One thing that will occupy much of my practice time in future was Rob's technique for playing tunes on the English concertina with all of the 'bounce' of an anglo, just to give a little more variety.

 

Hi tallship,

 

i would be interested in reading Sal's notes. If you want to share them i would be very thankfull. The selfteaching method needs some input from time to time. I'm studying the Irish repretoire on the EC for half a year now. Started from scratch. The 'bounce' of the anglo draws my attention

 

Dirk De Bleser

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Many thanks to Rob and Emma for a superb pair of workshops and a scintillating performance at the Lewes Arms in the evening - intelligent, sensitive and exciting. How they manage to maintain such a level of concentration astonishes me. I heartily recommend their joint CD 'New Dogs, Old Tricks'.

 

It was good to see old and new friends at the workshops.

 

Our next workshop is with Alistair Anderson on 15th. March; I've just started a separate topic for this. There will be some more jolly workshop days at the best pub in the universe later in 2008: concertina players booked include Will Duke on Scan Tester's tunes, 5th. July; Mary Humphreys & Anahata, 20th. September; John Kirkpatrick, 18th. Ooctober; and Roy Clinging & Neil Brookes, 22nd. November.

 

All the best,

 

Valmai

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Hi tallship,

 

i would be interested in reading Sal's notes. If you want to share them i would be very thankfull. The selfteaching method needs some input from time to time. I'm studying the Irish repretoire on the EC for half a year now. Started from scratch. The 'bounce' of the anglo draws my attention

 

Dirk De Bleser

 

Hello Dirk,

 

Rob is remarkably adept at playing Irish music on the EC because when he was learning he heard recordings of tunes being played on a concertina; at the time he didn't know that an anglo was being used and because nobody had explained to him that playing that style on an EC was impossible he just went ahead and figured it out!

 

Here are a couple of practice tips to get you started. First of all pick a tune that you can already play well, now play it with a change of bellows direction for every single note where possible. I won't sound nice, particularly at first, but it will teach you to be able to play a short passage with a distinctive 'bounce'

 

Next try playing a piece as you normally would while tapping your foot to the rhythm of the music, use the same leg that you rest the concertina on (assuming you play that way). Rob doesn't rest the concertina end on his leg but the bellows; many players say you shouldn't do this because it wears the bellows too much but in fifteen years playing the same concertina he hasn't found this to be the case. This technique gives you a very distinctive 'bellows wobble' much beloved by players of ITM. Combine bits of the two techniques and you are well on the way to playing an EC in an anglo style.

 

One thing I have to mention here is that Rob Harbron is a consummate musician with a deep understanding of musical theory. He is able to play well in any style and is particularly fond of playing Bach pieces which are technically challenging at the best of times. If I were to pick out the single most noticeable aspect of his playing it would have to be economy of movement; next would be his ability to create space in his playing. If you ever get the chance go to one of his workshops do so, you won't be disappointed.

 

When all of the notes and practice pieces have been written up I'll get in touch and let you have a copy.

 

Pete. :)

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Hi Pete,

 

thanks for the tips.

So I'll try to change the direction of the bellows much more often than i do now.

And i'll have to learn to tap with my left foot and get the bounce into my EC.

That will take some months, i fear. But i have time. Just in thirty years i will be eighty.

 

I'll keep an eye on the teaching plans of Robert. Belgium is not that far from the UK.

 

i'm looking forward to the copy. thanks a lot.

 

 

Dirk De Bleser

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This perhaps deserves a new thread of its own, but the new edition of EDS (formerly English Dance & Song, the EFDSS's official organ) has a two-and-a-half page article on the tunes manuscript book of William Winter of Somerset and information about Rob's CD of some of the tunes from it with Tim van Eyken, Nancy Kerr and Miranda Rutter.

 

Rob used tunes from the Winter collection in his Lewes Arms workshop. It's good to see a facsimile of pages from the book showing two of them: Chester Castle Hornpipe and The Pleasures of Salisbury. He talked about things to bear in mind when playing tunes that haven't been touched for 150 or so years; a fascinating subject.

 

Valmai

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